Surviving Manor Lords: A Player’s Journey Through Hidden Mechanics, Missing Warnings and the Brutal Beauty of a Medieval City Building RTS

Manor Lords is one of those rare games that can make you feel a bit of sympathy for real medieval survivors. Bandits really did raid and burn settlements. People really did die of cold or starvation in winter. It’s a city builder wrapped in a medieval simulation and it doesn’t seem to care if you don't know how to play. It's in early access, because it's a passion project, so we'll give it a bit of grace, but it has a long way to go to become a satisfying game. It drops you into a harsh landscape, hands you a handful of families, and whispers, 'Good luck'.

For many players, that challenge may be thrilling. For others, it’s overwhelming. And for some — like me — it becomes a saga of loss, frustration, downwards spirals and traps that are almost soft locks, discovery, and a whole lot of 'Why didn’t the game tell me this?!'

I am really looking for a game I can use to build my maps from my fantasy books, The Psion Saga, so it needs to have creative mode and a lot more building types.

This is the story of my Manor Lords experience: the highs, the lows, the moments of pure panic, and the lessons I learned the hard way. It’s also a plea — a constructive one — for better notifications, clearer warnings and more transparent systems in a game that has the potential to be great.

The Early Game: Hope, Hunger and the First Signs of Trouble

My journey began like most Manor Lords campaigns: a small settlement, a few families, and a dream of building something stable. I chose a region that looked promising on the map — Germanic Valley — without realising I had just selected one of the hardest starting biomes in the entire game.

No berries.
No animals.
Little fertile farmland.

Not enough wealth to build burgages with agriculture. So we survived on mushrooms for a few years!

There was a fish symbol in the lake but it didn't match the tooltip and I stupidly believed Bing Copilot when it told me I would not be able to fish there. It took me about 2 years in game to realise that was wrong. AI gets at least half of the info. wrong about this game, maybe because it's referring to walkthroughs from years ago that are out-of-date.

The game is fraught with traps. One supply chain connected to another, no warning when one little step starts to fail, which has a cascading effect. I built my logging camp, my woodcutter’s lodge, my market area. I watched my families settle in and begin their routines. Everything seemed fine. I got some farms going. I got stone, clay and iron going. I built a manor and got a tiny retinue of warriors. I knew bandits were coming, so I tried and tried to figure out how to get weapons so I could get more military. That was incredibly hard to figure out and get going. 

There's a smithy building, but there are also burgages (housing plots) with important crafting buildings. Once you set those up, your family is locked in, so if your supply lines dry up it's wasting an entire family. I hate that trap. You also can drain out your iron.

Trading is very slow and very hard. The cost to buy trading routes is extremely high and there are so many different ones you end up needing. 

I only had one extra group of spearmen by the time the bandits struck and they killed them all then burned half my town. 

This was my first taste of Manor Lords’ biggest flaw: the game knows when you’re in danger, but it doesn’t tell you.

The Trading Post Disaster: The Missing Toggle That Nearly Ended My Settlement

So I had got a spear pipeline and a shield pipeline going in my struggle to get more miliary, but then I didn't notice when the iron ore ran out. It took me a long time to realise most of my workers had gone idle, because no tools...!

Desperate for food and tools, I tried to use my Trading Post. I set it to import iron slabs so I could make tools and restart my production chain. I had very little wealth so I tried to trade out anything I could. We have had no fuel for about a year, so far, and people died in the winter. I waited for tools or iron slabs to come in.

And waited.

And waited.

Months passed. Traders came and went. And every time, they brought nothing.

No error message.
No warning.
No tooltip.
No hint that something was wrong.

Just silence.

It wasn’t until much later — after hours of starvation, stalled production and spiralling frustration — that I discovered the culprit:

The import amount toggle was set to zero.

The game let me activate “Import Iron Slabs” but didn’t warn me that the target amount was 0, meaning the trader would bring 0 slabs.

This is the kind of thing that makes players want to scream. A simple notification — “Import target is zero; no goods will be delivered” — would have saved me hours of confusion.

Even after fixing it, I still can't get out of it because my wealth is so low. Because I've had no tools for so long, I've spiralled down into some kind of economic collapse with too many mouths to feed and not enough resources (well barely enough food, nothing of just about everything else). No iron means no tools, so no logging, no mining, no crafting. Just about everything stops. I have no money. 

I had clay tiles and dressed stone to sell, but not enough money to buy the stupid trade routes. Big trap...

The Fuel Crisis: When One Tool Isn’t Enough

Eventually, after fixing the import toggle, I got my first iron slab delivery. I made a tool. I assigned woodcutters. I waited for firewood.

Nothing.

I had timber.
I had workers.
I had tools.
I had everything I needed.

Still nothing.

Why? Because my Logging Camp workers weren’t felling trees. And why weren’t they felling trees?

Because most of the forest had been felled and they didn't want to walk to one a bit down out of town.

Again: no warning.
No “Workers have no trees in their work area.”
No “Logging Camp is idle due to lack of resources.”
Nothing.

Just idle workers and a settlement slowly freezing to death.

This is where Manor Lords’ charm becomes its curse. The simulation is deep, but the feedback is shallow. The systems are intricate, but the communication is minimal. The game expects you to intuit everything, even when the UI hides critical information behind tiny icons and unlabelled toggles.

The Wildlife Migration Incident: When Deer Flee Your Hope

After clawing my way out of starvation, I finally saved enough Influence to claim a second region — the only one left that cost 1,000 Influence instead of 2,000 or more.

It was far away, but it had animals. Food at last.

I placed a Hunting Camp directly inside the animal zone.

And the animals immediately migrated away.

Why? Because any construction inside a wildlife zone causes the animals to flee.

Did the game warn me?
Did it say, “Building here will disturb wildlife”?
Did it highlight the zone in red?
Did it give me a tooltip?

No.

The animals just left.
Silently.
Instantly.
Forever.

This was the moment I realized Manor Lords isn’t just hard — it’s opaque. It hides critical mechanics behind trial and error, and the errors are punishing. So I loaded a save. Sigh.

The Burgage Upgrade Mystery: Greyed‑Out Buttons and No Explanation

At one point, I had enough timber, enough planks, enough space, and enough families to upgrade several Burgage Plots to Level 2.

But the upgrade button was greyed out.

Why?

Because I had no fuel in the Market stall.

Did the game tell me that?
Did it say, “Fuel stall must be stocked before upgrading”?
Did it highlight the missing requirement?

No.

Just a grey button and a confused player.

This is a pattern in Manor Lords:

• Something stops working

• The UI gives no explanation

• The player spirals into confusion

• The settlement spirals into collapse

It’s not difficulty — it’s silence.

Suggestions for Improvement: How Manor Lords Could Be More Player‑Friendly Without Losing Its Depth

Manor Lords needs to be easier and clearer. If you aren't a math whiz or have a lightning bolt short term memory, trying to manage everything is punishing.

Here are the improvements that would transform the experience without compromising the challenge.

1. Clear Error Messages for Idle Buildings

If a Logging Camp has no trees in its work area, the game should say:

“No trees in work area — workers idle.”

If a Woodcutter’s Lodge has no timber:

“No timber available — production halted.”

If a Trading Post import target is zero:

“Import target is 0 — no goods will be delivered.”

These tiny messages would save players hours of confusion.

2. Warnings for Wildlife Disturbance

When placing a building inside a wildlife zone, the game should highlight the zone in red and warn:

“Construction here will cause animals to migrate.”

This alone would prevent countless ruined food chains.

3. Burgage Upgrade Requirements Listed Clearly

Instead of a greyed‑out button with no explanation, the game should show:

• Fuel stall: missing

• Clothing stall: missing

• Food stall: stocked

• Church: built

A simple checklist would solve everything.

4. Notifications for Critical Resource Shortages

If any workers become idle 'waiting', it should warn you.
If an ore runs out, the game should warn you.
If fuel hits zero, the game should warn you.
If food hits zero, the game should warn you.
If tools hit zero, the game should warn you.

Right now, these crises sneak up silently.

5. Better Feedback on Trader Behaviour and Cheaper Routes

If a trader arrives empty, the game should explain why:

• Not enough wealth at spawn

• Import target too low

• Storage full

• Wrong import/export setting

• The cost of trade routes way too high; player is constantly hamstrung

This would eliminate one of the most frustrating mechanics in the game.

Conclusion: A Game Worth Fighting For

Manor Lords is a worthwhile game in the making. Its world is nice enough, its systems are deep, and its potential is enormous. But right now, it suffers from a lack of communication that turns challenge into confusion.

My journey through the game was chaotic, stressful and at times infuriating — not rewarding enough so far. But I will see how I go.